I am what I am, the voice whispered within as he stood there, eyes
closed. It had been a long and trying day, but he rested calmly, feeling
his energy flow within him. He was an odd one those in the program had
said, but then again, he left the program and had kept his silence.
The silver light of the moon, full and clear filled him, as he sat there upon the hill, his blade, an ancient Katana, a samurai sword, lay besides him as he slowed his breathing. It was a calm place, his leather clothes kept him warm and the helmet he wore was still closed to block out the sounds that came from the village he had stopped at for the night.
It felt good to be in this ancient land, the emerald isle, Ireland was a place he desired to visit but he sensed power here, power different than elsewhere. He remembered when he had learned the secrets that the Guardians had taught him when they found that he had the gift of second sight, the Sixth Sense though that brought forth the quote from that blasted movie about seeing dead people.
Being one of the first psions to manifest all three abilities was something that made it a struggle to get free of the conspiracy, though he still had contacts, each of them hoping to be the ones to bring him back into the fold, something he would never do.
He felt the weapon he kept holstered inside of his trench coat, the mini-Uzi was a comfort to him, though he knew that the ancient blade he bore was more powerful, the gun reminded him that he was truly still human though some would disagree.
Suddenly, he felt something nearby, rage, anger, and pain. Something that was beastial, yet humanoid in a matter of speaking. He locked onto it and he rolled to his feet, as he knew it was heading for the village.
Running full out, he covered the distance to an intercept point easily, his eyes easily changing to view it in night vision as he stopped atop a hilltop, his motorcycle helmet shut and glinting off of the diamond coating. He gripped his blade by its hilt, one hand of the grip and one on the sheath.
Slowly, he pulled th sheath off of the blade, wood against metal, and he gently laid the sheath against the ancient stone wall he decided was the point where he would have to hold it back from, a point where he could not let it cross.
His mind identified three more minds now distinct from the first, a hostile situation for a normal human, but he was far from a normal human, he was a merger of three specialized psion types, capable of things that would make most people scream and run in terror. He focused his mind as he spotted the movement.
The first thought he had when he saw them, was that they must be chemical monsters, made by one of the Russian groups, most likely, PERIL. He felt these creatures minds now as they spotted him, he saw their claws slowly extend as he cleared his mind of all doubt.
He hated to kill, but then again, it was them or him and the village. Then he realized something, their minds weren't human, far from it, closer to a combination of a chimpanzee and a hyena, and they wanted to eat him.
Okay, he thought, not PERIL related, but still unusual, Guardian problem most likely, but mine at the moment.
Then the time for thought was over as he moved forwards, blade glistening in the moon light as he twirled, cleaving the head of the nearest foe clean off with the first blow, its body collapsed like a sack of bricks.
Blood splattered around as the severed head rolled to a stop, everything was silent for a moment as the three remaining foes moved to strike, like a pack of wolves.
The two on the sides lunged at him, they would have taken out a normal human, but ,again, he was far from human. He teleported, the power to slow time around him was an effortless move as he leaped over them to land upon the wall as they slammed into each other, blade moving once more, literally disarming one of them with an upward strike.
Unfortunately the blade struck bone from a bad angle and was stuck deep in the creatures shoulder though the arm was on the ground. He couldn't get a good grip on the hilt as it roared and lunged at him. But once more he was gone, leaping vertical, drawing his mini-Uzi and snapping off the safety, thanking God that he had loaded it with armor piercing rounds.
Flipping backwards in a jump, he pulled the trigger as he landed, the guns distinctive bucking calmed him as he shredded the one of the uninjured enemies with the entire clip, making it look like Swiss cheese before it collapsed to the ground almost simultaneously with the empty cartridge for the sub machine gun.
He focused his mind as he reholstered it, mentally kicking himself for not carrying more than one clip, but he was still armed. He focused him mind, remembering the powers he had experienced. As he stepped off the wall, he felt a slight tingling, electricity, it was going to be an easy win as he channeled the power into his hands while the remaining intact beast lunged, but he released the electricity as a stream of lightning that poured from his hand, tearing into his foe, making it catch fire and fall twitching to the ground, golden sparks of energy still coursing over it followed by it catching ablaze.
The injured creature was all that was left to deal with an it lunged at him, forcing him to react with a foot sweep, tripping it as he rolled to the side, hands finally getting a good rip on the hilt of the blade and yanking it free of the creatures flesh as he spun under a slash of its claws to drive the blade into the creatures chest and upwards through the shoulder, dropping it to join the others in a heap of corpses.
He really didn't like killing anything, but it was something he could do if it was necessary for survival of himself or others.
Slowly he wiped the gore from his blade on the grass, the night to late for him to tell the color, but that could theoretically wait until morning to discover unless there was a cleanup team following these creatures. It would be worth investigating though.
* * * * *
"Code Black, Code Black." the alarms were blazing again and again in LEP headquarters in Haven.
"Foaly!" yelled an overweight Fairy that was raging through the building, "Cut that blasted siren!"
"Julius, we have four trolls located on the surface in Ireland, sector 7," the centaur responded as the alarm died down.
"What," the other stuttered, his name was Root, Julius Root, Commander of the LEP, "Is it Fowl!"
"No," the centaur said as he fiddled with a console, "Retrieval One is enrout to the signal though."
"Good," said the Root,, realizing that he was mellowing with edge.
It was then that the comms board chimed prompting Foaly to open communications.
"This is Trouble," came the call over the comms, as the centaur grinned slightly remembering the last time a troll made it to the surface, "You need to see this, I'm recording it for the record, but a mudman is homing in on the Trolls, he appears to be armed."
The centaur turned on a monitor and it displayed a leather clad figure standing patiently, and pull out a sheathed sword.
Something is wrong here, he thought as he watched, a gleaming blade slowly exited the sheath, and the figure laid it down against a stone wall.
"Take down the Trolls as fast as you can," Root yelled, "We need to prevent all of the casualties we can, and that mudman has no idea what he is going up against!"
Suddenly the trolls entered sight of the human, and charged, Root realized just as quickly that Retrieval One wouldn't be able to stop it in time, the man was a goner for sure. He slowly closed his eyes, hoping for some sort of miracle. A dismembered mudman would be hard to hide or cover up.
"Amazing," Foaly gasped, prompting Root to open his eyes to see one of the Trolls fall to the ground missing its head, it looked like a clean blow to, one stroke, one kill.
"He's not out of it yet," Julius whispered as he pointed at the other three trolls moving to circle the man and lunge at him, claws speeding towards home.
Or they would have if the man hadn't vanished.
"What the hell was that?" Trouble yelled over the comms as he glanced around trying to figure out what had happened, then he spotted the man appear to materialize atop the wall before striking again, severing another trolls arm, but his blade seemed to be trapped between bones.
But the man wasn't out of tricks yet, he pulled out a weapon, a gun, a type non of the LEP officers recognized at first, even Foaly.
After tapping a few keys the centaur turned to the others, "That is an Uzi, appears to be trimmed down, and definitely has an automatic mode though."
The mudman leaped backwards in a flip as the gun opened up, riddling another troll full of bullets.
"That guy has armor piercing rounds of some kind!" Trouble gasped as the man reholstered the weapon as it clicked empty, "But if he doesn't have any more tricks up his sleeve he is a goner!"
Suddenly, what appeared to be lightning came coursing through the mans hand, striking the remaining intact troll dead center, sending it into convulsions and lighting it on fire.
"How did he." all three watchers stammered as the man grabbed hold of the hilt of his blade and tore it free.
The man spun under a strike and sliced the last remaining troll from belly to shoulder, killing it.
"Sir," Trouble said calmly, "What am I supposed to do, that man took down four trolls in less than three minutes, how am I supposed to mind wipe someone who took down that kind of force so easily."
"Return to base," Root said, eyes and mouth still wide open in amazement, "We'll figure out what to do next."
"Yes, sir," Trouble grunted as the camera shifted to show him heading off.
"Foaly," Root managed to stutter, "Get me Holly Short, now!"
* * * * *
Anton leaned back in the chair, his weapons arrayed before him. It had been a long while since he had talked to people who were under the cloak, but he still had a few favors that people owed him. He had a few contacts in Room 39 that might be able to help him, as would some of the Fringewalkers that he knew from Division Nihil.
He doubted that they had the answers for what he needed, but it was worth a shot, he knew it would be nearly impossible to contact the Guardians of the Whispering Knife so he wasn't planning on trying.
Another question plagued his mind, his powers had seemed to grow since he had left the fold even though it was with good grace and not burned. He hadn't been able to use such force with his powers; he had taken something down with one hit, and lit it up like a Christmas tree. It shouldn't be possible to have powers of that magnitude. It shouldn't, but it was.
He felt something, a presence brushed his mind, something that mystics normally only caused him to feel. He cleared his mind and changed his form of seeing, then he spotted something on infrared, a figure that appeared similar to a child, but not quite. One more thing he couldn't put his finger on.
Whoever the intruder was, they should have no clue about some of the surprises he had already installed in the small cottage, he owned it even though he also owned an old castle nearby. While the old fortress was being modernized, he was living here, but there were enough security features to make most people cringe, unfortunately most of them he had forgot to arm at the moment, his mind so busy with the battle he had fought in.
* * * * *
"Why me?" Holly Short groaned as she jumped to her feet.
"Because you have experience with mud men," Root said calmly, "And that gives you the best chance of any of us."
Both Holly and Foaly still found it strange that Root had mellowed as much as he had, changing from a screamer to a calm and calculating individual. He had nearly been killed, and that changes people, it really changes them. The LEP commander had given up his cigars as well, though his actions were far scarier to the new recruits as he would sit and watch, calmly and emotionlessly.
"My last contact didn't end up so well at the beginning," Holly commented.
"That's why your going in prepared, with Retrieval One and Two as backup, this guy took out four trolls single handedly without a scratch on him and in under four minutes."
"That.that.that's impossible!" she managed to stutter, "Even Butler barely won against one troll!"
Foaly slid her a video screen and within five minutes she was out the door and on her way.
The silver light of the moon, full and clear filled him, as he sat there upon the hill, his blade, an ancient Katana, a samurai sword, lay besides him as he slowed his breathing. It was a calm place, his leather clothes kept him warm and the helmet he wore was still closed to block out the sounds that came from the village he had stopped at for the night.
It felt good to be in this ancient land, the emerald isle, Ireland was a place he desired to visit but he sensed power here, power different than elsewhere. He remembered when he had learned the secrets that the Guardians had taught him when they found that he had the gift of second sight, the Sixth Sense though that brought forth the quote from that blasted movie about seeing dead people.
Being one of the first psions to manifest all three abilities was something that made it a struggle to get free of the conspiracy, though he still had contacts, each of them hoping to be the ones to bring him back into the fold, something he would never do.
He felt the weapon he kept holstered inside of his trench coat, the mini-Uzi was a comfort to him, though he knew that the ancient blade he bore was more powerful, the gun reminded him that he was truly still human though some would disagree.
Suddenly, he felt something nearby, rage, anger, and pain. Something that was beastial, yet humanoid in a matter of speaking. He locked onto it and he rolled to his feet, as he knew it was heading for the village.
Running full out, he covered the distance to an intercept point easily, his eyes easily changing to view it in night vision as he stopped atop a hilltop, his motorcycle helmet shut and glinting off of the diamond coating. He gripped his blade by its hilt, one hand of the grip and one on the sheath.
Slowly, he pulled th sheath off of the blade, wood against metal, and he gently laid the sheath against the ancient stone wall he decided was the point where he would have to hold it back from, a point where he could not let it cross.
His mind identified three more minds now distinct from the first, a hostile situation for a normal human, but he was far from a normal human, he was a merger of three specialized psion types, capable of things that would make most people scream and run in terror. He focused his mind as he spotted the movement.
The first thought he had when he saw them, was that they must be chemical monsters, made by one of the Russian groups, most likely, PERIL. He felt these creatures minds now as they spotted him, he saw their claws slowly extend as he cleared his mind of all doubt.
He hated to kill, but then again, it was them or him and the village. Then he realized something, their minds weren't human, far from it, closer to a combination of a chimpanzee and a hyena, and they wanted to eat him.
Okay, he thought, not PERIL related, but still unusual, Guardian problem most likely, but mine at the moment.
Then the time for thought was over as he moved forwards, blade glistening in the moon light as he twirled, cleaving the head of the nearest foe clean off with the first blow, its body collapsed like a sack of bricks.
Blood splattered around as the severed head rolled to a stop, everything was silent for a moment as the three remaining foes moved to strike, like a pack of wolves.
The two on the sides lunged at him, they would have taken out a normal human, but ,again, he was far from human. He teleported, the power to slow time around him was an effortless move as he leaped over them to land upon the wall as they slammed into each other, blade moving once more, literally disarming one of them with an upward strike.
Unfortunately the blade struck bone from a bad angle and was stuck deep in the creatures shoulder though the arm was on the ground. He couldn't get a good grip on the hilt as it roared and lunged at him. But once more he was gone, leaping vertical, drawing his mini-Uzi and snapping off the safety, thanking God that he had loaded it with armor piercing rounds.
Flipping backwards in a jump, he pulled the trigger as he landed, the guns distinctive bucking calmed him as he shredded the one of the uninjured enemies with the entire clip, making it look like Swiss cheese before it collapsed to the ground almost simultaneously with the empty cartridge for the sub machine gun.
He focused his mind as he reholstered it, mentally kicking himself for not carrying more than one clip, but he was still armed. He focused him mind, remembering the powers he had experienced. As he stepped off the wall, he felt a slight tingling, electricity, it was going to be an easy win as he channeled the power into his hands while the remaining intact beast lunged, but he released the electricity as a stream of lightning that poured from his hand, tearing into his foe, making it catch fire and fall twitching to the ground, golden sparks of energy still coursing over it followed by it catching ablaze.
The injured creature was all that was left to deal with an it lunged at him, forcing him to react with a foot sweep, tripping it as he rolled to the side, hands finally getting a good rip on the hilt of the blade and yanking it free of the creatures flesh as he spun under a slash of its claws to drive the blade into the creatures chest and upwards through the shoulder, dropping it to join the others in a heap of corpses.
He really didn't like killing anything, but it was something he could do if it was necessary for survival of himself or others.
Slowly he wiped the gore from his blade on the grass, the night to late for him to tell the color, but that could theoretically wait until morning to discover unless there was a cleanup team following these creatures. It would be worth investigating though.
* * * * *
"Code Black, Code Black." the alarms were blazing again and again in LEP headquarters in Haven.
"Foaly!" yelled an overweight Fairy that was raging through the building, "Cut that blasted siren!"
"Julius, we have four trolls located on the surface in Ireland, sector 7," the centaur responded as the alarm died down.
"What," the other stuttered, his name was Root, Julius Root, Commander of the LEP, "Is it Fowl!"
"No," the centaur said as he fiddled with a console, "Retrieval One is enrout to the signal though."
"Good," said the Root,, realizing that he was mellowing with edge.
It was then that the comms board chimed prompting Foaly to open communications.
"This is Trouble," came the call over the comms, as the centaur grinned slightly remembering the last time a troll made it to the surface, "You need to see this, I'm recording it for the record, but a mudman is homing in on the Trolls, he appears to be armed."
The centaur turned on a monitor and it displayed a leather clad figure standing patiently, and pull out a sheathed sword.
Something is wrong here, he thought as he watched, a gleaming blade slowly exited the sheath, and the figure laid it down against a stone wall.
"Take down the Trolls as fast as you can," Root yelled, "We need to prevent all of the casualties we can, and that mudman has no idea what he is going up against!"
Suddenly the trolls entered sight of the human, and charged, Root realized just as quickly that Retrieval One wouldn't be able to stop it in time, the man was a goner for sure. He slowly closed his eyes, hoping for some sort of miracle. A dismembered mudman would be hard to hide or cover up.
"Amazing," Foaly gasped, prompting Root to open his eyes to see one of the Trolls fall to the ground missing its head, it looked like a clean blow to, one stroke, one kill.
"He's not out of it yet," Julius whispered as he pointed at the other three trolls moving to circle the man and lunge at him, claws speeding towards home.
Or they would have if the man hadn't vanished.
"What the hell was that?" Trouble yelled over the comms as he glanced around trying to figure out what had happened, then he spotted the man appear to materialize atop the wall before striking again, severing another trolls arm, but his blade seemed to be trapped between bones.
But the man wasn't out of tricks yet, he pulled out a weapon, a gun, a type non of the LEP officers recognized at first, even Foaly.
After tapping a few keys the centaur turned to the others, "That is an Uzi, appears to be trimmed down, and definitely has an automatic mode though."
The mudman leaped backwards in a flip as the gun opened up, riddling another troll full of bullets.
"That guy has armor piercing rounds of some kind!" Trouble gasped as the man reholstered the weapon as it clicked empty, "But if he doesn't have any more tricks up his sleeve he is a goner!"
Suddenly, what appeared to be lightning came coursing through the mans hand, striking the remaining intact troll dead center, sending it into convulsions and lighting it on fire.
"How did he." all three watchers stammered as the man grabbed hold of the hilt of his blade and tore it free.
The man spun under a strike and sliced the last remaining troll from belly to shoulder, killing it.
"Sir," Trouble said calmly, "What am I supposed to do, that man took down four trolls in less than three minutes, how am I supposed to mind wipe someone who took down that kind of force so easily."
"Return to base," Root said, eyes and mouth still wide open in amazement, "We'll figure out what to do next."
"Yes, sir," Trouble grunted as the camera shifted to show him heading off.
"Foaly," Root managed to stutter, "Get me Holly Short, now!"
* * * * *
Anton leaned back in the chair, his weapons arrayed before him. It had been a long while since he had talked to people who were under the cloak, but he still had a few favors that people owed him. He had a few contacts in Room 39 that might be able to help him, as would some of the Fringewalkers that he knew from Division Nihil.
He doubted that they had the answers for what he needed, but it was worth a shot, he knew it would be nearly impossible to contact the Guardians of the Whispering Knife so he wasn't planning on trying.
Another question plagued his mind, his powers had seemed to grow since he had left the fold even though it was with good grace and not burned. He hadn't been able to use such force with his powers; he had taken something down with one hit, and lit it up like a Christmas tree. It shouldn't be possible to have powers of that magnitude. It shouldn't, but it was.
He felt something, a presence brushed his mind, something that mystics normally only caused him to feel. He cleared his mind and changed his form of seeing, then he spotted something on infrared, a figure that appeared similar to a child, but not quite. One more thing he couldn't put his finger on.
Whoever the intruder was, they should have no clue about some of the surprises he had already installed in the small cottage, he owned it even though he also owned an old castle nearby. While the old fortress was being modernized, he was living here, but there were enough security features to make most people cringe, unfortunately most of them he had forgot to arm at the moment, his mind so busy with the battle he had fought in.
* * * * *
"Why me?" Holly Short groaned as she jumped to her feet.
"Because you have experience with mud men," Root said calmly, "And that gives you the best chance of any of us."
Both Holly and Foaly still found it strange that Root had mellowed as much as he had, changing from a screamer to a calm and calculating individual. He had nearly been killed, and that changes people, it really changes them. The LEP commander had given up his cigars as well, though his actions were far scarier to the new recruits as he would sit and watch, calmly and emotionlessly.
"My last contact didn't end up so well at the beginning," Holly commented.
"That's why your going in prepared, with Retrieval One and Two as backup, this guy took out four trolls single handedly without a scratch on him and in under four minutes."
"That.that.that's impossible!" she managed to stutter, "Even Butler barely won against one troll!"
Foaly slid her a video screen and within five minutes she was out the door and on her way.